As I walked down 2nd Avenue towards Red Hook, I noticed that the railing along the Pathmark parking lot serves as another kind of parking area. There were at least six shopping carts locked to it, a visible trace of the homeless that bring recyclables to the bottle exchange outside the Pathmark. I have heard nothing about plans to remediate this portion of the Metropolitan Works site. To make the cleanup of the Gowanus Canal meaningful and lasting, something must be done about the coal tar under this site.

When I arrived in Red Hook Park, the soccer team on the field took a break. I had been hoping to photograph some of the play but instead, I looked for signs of spring. A small tree next to a larger one, very close to the Chemtura site was beginning to flower. This manufacturer’s plant was built on historic landfill. I am not sure about the park itself.

Some landscaping work was going on in the Ikea parking lot which was built over a dry dock. Since this site was remediated before Ikea was built, I assume all the soil where these manicured grasses are grown was put down by Ikea.

Coney Island Creek which runs around the site of the former Coney Island mgp looked beautiful in the spring morning light this week on Tuesday, March 29th.

The former Dangman Park mgp, now a shopping strip, had some new T-mobile flags. I thought I could somehow get the light coming through the fabric. While that didn’t work, this woman walked towards me pushing a stroller.

This spot which appears so barren is turning out to be so rich. it really encapsulates a whole era of American history.

March 7, 2011. Meeker and N. 7th Street.

Ansbacher came to New York from Bavaria to escape Antisemitism as did the family of Robert Moses, the other man to shape this spot. Ansbacher incorporates in 1875 and begins to make Paris Green at 310 N. 7th Street. There is an article in the Brooklyn Eagle about neighbors complaining about having Paris Green in their yards that very year. If you search the Brooklyn Eagle for Paris Green, there are 1,000 items most of them about suicides accomplished with this chemical compound. By 1902, the business is doing so well, Ansbacher expands his building. This new building is big enough that there are over 100 men working on it. These Irish brick carriers decide to strike for a raise from $2.75 a day to $3. Italians are brought in the break the strike. Ansbacher was a philanthropist, giving money in particular to Mount Sinai Hospital. He dies in 1917 and about 10 years later his company merges with another dye firm, eventually to be absorbed into Sun Chemical in the 1950s. Then it was Robert Moses’ turn to mold N. 7th and Union. The path of the BQE including the former Ansbacher factory building, Paris Green and all, was razed in 1947 to Metropolitan Avenue. The BQE was built to this point by 1951. there was a gap between metropolitan and the Willamsburg bridge. You an see this on the NYC doitt map. Further progress took a few years. Now the spot is a corridor, a place to pass through.

Yesterday I took a walk through Greenpoint and Williamsburg. 101-05 West Street appears unchanged from my last visit in 2009.But everywhere else there appears to be construction. Transmitter Park around the corner is underway. The Pencil Factory Condos are finished now. They are named for the Faber Pencil factory that was between Greenpoint and Kent and Franklin and West, across the street from 101-05 West Street. There is also construction on the Greenpoint Avenue side of this block. It seems a matter of time until something is built at 101-05 West Street.

Self-portrait on Oak Street.

Bushwick Inlet.

Former Williamsburg Works site. Kent between N. 12th and 11th.
In the summer of 2009, there was active testing being conducted on this site. The results of those tests have not been posted to the NYSDEC Environmental Site Remediation database record for this site. It had been cleared and was fenced off. It now appears that the site has reverted to use as a parking area.
It seems like there is a long way to go before this area becomes Bushwick Inlet Park.

On N. 13th, where the Wythe Avenue holder once stood, there was quite a bit of activity.

Union Avenue. This statue commemorates the church, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel that stood at Union Avenue and Jackson and was torn down in order to build the BQE.

Ansbacher Color and Dye Factory. 310 N. 7th Street.
I am making a piece about this site for an group show that will use augmented reality: Décollage: Torn Exteriors. It is curated by my friend Sarah Drury and will open at Ventana 244 in April. First, I need to figure exactly where the factory was. 304 is still standing and was in 1898 the Ridgewood Color Works according to the Ulilitz map in the NYPL digital collection. It is now owned by the Candle Development corp. It does not look open and there is an EPA action against the owners dating to 2007. Next to this would have been 310 N. 7th. Now Meeker Avenue runs there parallel with the BQE.

The Ansbacher Color and Dye works made pigments for use in paints and inks. One of those was Paris Green. The name of the pigment comes from its use in the sewers of Paris to kill rats. It was also a pigment used by artists. Cezanne used it frequently. (See a report by The American Institute for Conservation.) It is possible that his diabetes was brought on by arsenic poisoning. Paris green was also used as an insecticide and as such marked the beginning of the use of chemical insecticides. Take a look at this ad for Ansbacher’s Paris Green. Empire Boulevard also used Ansbacher’s Paris Green in episode 11 for a poisoning. The NYSDEC record for the site states there are elevated arsenic levels in the surrounding yards. Given the proximity of the BQE, I am sure that is not all there is in the soil of those yards.

On Monday, Feb 21st, I took a walk around the Gowanus. It had snowed the night before.
The Carroll Street Bridge looked lovely from the Union Street Bridge. Looking at it though, I can now see it and the other bridges starting at 9th Street as sealing the fate of the Gowanus. It took me a while to understand why the development of the Newtown Creek has been so different. All these low bridges along the Gowanus at some point made industrial activity impractical. A barge still regularly leaves Benson Scrap Metal and I would guess goes to New Jersey though I don’t know for sure. That section of the canal is below all the low bridges.

From the Union Street bridge, looking the other way towards the flushing tunnel.
Water from Buttermilk Channel enters the canal and with it needed oxygen. The EPAs RI report has been made public. And what it made clear to me is that the components of coal tar left over from the canal’s three manufactured gas plants contaminate not just the soft sediment but the native sediment below that. And this stuff moves around and is probably going to keep getting into the canal from the land where there still is coal tar or NAPL-non-aqueous phase liquid. At the Union Street end of the canal that source would be the Fulton Works that was on Degraw.

Double D pool and the handball court in Thomas Green park were built right over the site where the gas plant stood. The NYSDEC is responsible to clean up this site. While the pool is unlikely to be dangerous to swimmers, the coal tar underneath it is getting into the canal and the groundwater.

Which leads me to my next thought. The contamination in the canal leads to fish and crabs living in it to accumulate toxins. So these should really not be eaten by humans. People without other alternatives do eat these things at considerable hazard to themselves and their children. While this is a serious problem, I see the true danger in the canal in flooding events. The toxins in the water and the sediments get out of the canal and people come in contact with them. Flooding events due to global warming are predicted to become much more frequent. I think this is the real reason to clean up the canal. It is never predicted to be swimmable but if what is washed onto shore during extreme weather events is less dangerous that would be a good thing.

On Sunday, November 21, the tide was fairly low and revealed a few things I had never seen before. The old coffee barge is always visible to some degree but I had never before seen this old boat in the extension of the Gowanus that runs between 4th and 5th streets.

I was surprised to hear and then see activity at 6th Street Scrap Metal as this facility while very busy 6 days a week is usually shut up tight on Sundays.

Down by Lowe’s, the low tide allowed for visibility to the bottom of the inlet. Of course, it is not the visible garbage that is dangerous here but rather the leftover coal Tar from the Metropolitan Works manufactured gas plant.

While the Lowe’s portion of the site was remediated, no work has been done on the Pathmark portion of the site. The gas plant was located right about where the supermarket itself stands. From the Hamilton Avenue Bridge at low tide, you can see how here is not even a retaining wall here but the soil, very likely to be toxic, is exposed to the water. Also, notice the bricks sticking out. If anyone knows what structure this was, please let me know.

The Ninth Street Bridge was beautiful in the evening light.

A small boat went through the canal. On the side was printed “Tender to the Lettie G. Howard.” This later ship is a schooner that is now a museum ship based at the South Street Seaport. Behind them was the barge that services Benson Scrap Metal.

This is Benson Scrap Metal from the Gowanus side.

And from Smith Street. It too was open on Sunday. The volume of material on site both here and at 6th Street has really grown over the last two years. I assume business has been slow and there has been less of a market for scrap metal. Noting that both places were open on Sunday, I did start to speculate that maybe things are picking up.

Under the Gowanus Expressway, around 2nd Avenue and 16th Street, there seemed to be a huge number of small birds. I found this quite surprising. Given the volume of traffic on the Expressway, it doesn’t seem like a hospitable spot for any life.

On Sunday, November 14, I started on Norman Avenue. This building-or at least the building around the corner at 315 Kingsland-the former Spic and Span Cleaners and Dryers is a state superfund site. It is located over the Meeker Avenue plume. According to the NYSDEC record the primary contaminant is TETRACHLOROETHYLENE (PCE). Work has been done on the building since I was last here. The facade looks pretty cute. People are obviously living here.

The recent settlement between Exxon Mobil and New York State will hopefully speed up the pace of the cleanup of the huge oil spill under Greenpoint. This pickup was parked on Norman, a block or so from the hot spot at Apollo and Bridgewater and probably right over the Meeker Avenue plume. Maybe it was best that the kids stayed in the car.

Sunday on Bridgewater, it is pretty quiet.

Most of Meeker Avenue, named for Samuel M. Meeker, once the president of the Williamsburg Savings Bank, is now a service road for the BQE. A short section veers off from the BQE at it turns slightly to go over the the Kosciuszko Bridge, and offers an access point to the Newtown Creek. The Penny Bridge once crossed here at Meeker before the Kosciuszko was built in 1939.

Meeker Avenue was shut up pretty tight as well except for the guard at Empire Merchants. That site was once the Paragon Oil Company, owned by Texaco operated on that site until the late 1960s.

The view of the water was deceptively lovely.

There was nothing lovely about the water’s edge except a few autumn leaves.

Cherry Street was completely deserted. It runs along the BQE as it goes over the Kosciuszko Bridge. Cherry Street also runs over the Meeker Avenue Plume. A scrap collection business operates here. This seems to me a true hell. The ground underneath is contaminated both from the plume and the oil spill. The cars constantly passing overhead must rain down a steady stream of the pollutants in car exhaust.

The first section of the BQE that was built in 1939 was the section that connected Meeker Avenue in Greenpoint to Queens Boulevard. In 1950, an extension was built to the Williamsburg Bridge that ran over Meeker Avenue.

On Friday, Peter Spellane and I set off to see the Phelps Dodge state superfund site in Queens. According to the NYS DEC record for the site, It was used “from 1920-1983 for the production of tri-basic copper sulfate (pesticides), copper and sulfate pentahydrate and as a copper refinery.” And “The primary contaminants of concern at the site are heavy metals, including cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, and others, petroleum related hydrocarbons, and PCBs.”

We started from the Grand Street L stop, pausing for guava pastelitos from an excellent Dominican bakery.

Monk fish was being delivered to the fried fish place on Bushwick Avenue as we headed down Grand.

We passed the car salvage and Bayside Fuel Oil Depot before we went over the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge that goes over the English Kills and then the Grand Avenue Bridge that goes over the east branch of the Newton Creek.

We turned down 47th Street. There is na abandoned lot along the creek side of the street and at the end, there is this construction material yard.

The weather was threatening rain so we skipped taking advantage of this access point to the creek at the end of 58th Road.

We turned up 48th Street.

At 48th and Maspeth Avenue, you get a view of Maspeth Creek. Across the water is the southernmost part of the Phelps Dodge site. A kitchen and bath showroom is now on this portion of the site.

The visible garbage in the water really isn’t the dangerous part.

At 49th Street and 56th Road, we noticed railroad tracks that are well maintained and in working order. 49th Street here runs along the east border of the Phelps Dodge site. The railroad runs along 56th Road basically on the northern edge of the property.

The Phelps Dodge site is on the other side of this fence. Across the creek in the background you can see one of the two large gas storage tanks that belong to National Grid. The way the property breaks up moving from west to east is that there is a vacant area next to the Kosciuszko Bridge then a restaurant supply big-box style store with ample paved parking areas around it. Then there is another fenced off abandoned area that has several temporary structures on it that Peter thought might be part of the remediation effort. And then there is the Davis and Warshow kitchen and bath supply showroom which is on Maspeth Creek. Peter spoke with the “guard” who is a geologist.

Out behind the restaurant supply building I met this trucker who drives for Foodliner moving food-grade dry bulk, primarily flour. He had just brought a load of kosher flour to the restaurant supply. BTW, Foodliner is hiring.

Phelps Dodge and Nichols Chemical before them must have brought in materials by water.

At the water’s edge is a concrete area that runs along the Newtown Creek well around the bend of the Maspeth Creek that was served by small rail.

Left by a seagull after a meal.

Customers of the restaurant supply. The name of their establishment is Jekyll and Hyde.

As we were leaving, we noticed the old mailbox for Phelps Dodge. The land is now owned by Sagres Partners.

Right under the bridge, just adjacent to the property, we saw these two men working in and around open dirt. It is the contaminated soil on the other side of the fence that the DEC says is the greatest risk for human exposure to the toxins on the site.

And we finally did see the railroad in action. the load appeared to be plywood.

On Saturday October 23rd, I went on one of the tours of Fresh Kills. It was given by Ranger Khalil and Doug Elliot. Leaving from the Eltington Transit Station, the bus took us first up to the top of the south mound. One thing the photos from the tops of the mounds do not capture is the size of the landfill. It was however quite impressive to get out of the bus and know that I was standing on 150 feet of garbage. It was also remarkable to see how close people live to the landfill.

There is a lot of ongoing work at Fresh kills. This is the East mound which is in the process of being capped.

This is one of three gas flare stations. Gas from the decomposing garbage that poses a problem to the gas regulation system gets burnt off here. Methane gas is captured and used to heat homes in the area.

It almost looks really beautiful until you see the pipes in the ground that are used to regulate the escaping gases. This is the view from the North mound.

This is the view towards the west mound. It was the newest of the areas to receive garbage and according to Doug Elliot could have taken all of New York City’s garbage for another 20 years beyond 2001 when Fresh Kills was closed. It has not yet been fully capped.

And then there is New Jersey.

It is hard standing on top of 150 feet of garbage which by the way has settled about 10 to 15 feet over the last 10 years or so and looking out over the petroleum storage in New Jersey to feel very hopeful.

Before the tour left Fresh Kills, the bus swung by the area where the barges would come to Fresh Kills with the garbage. These blue machines were used to take the garbage off the barges.
Then, I took the bus up to Port Richmond. At the base of Port Richmond Avenue, you will see this burned out tugboat.

While I was in Faber park a container ship went by. An older man I was talking to in the park classified it as of medium size.

Most of the ships coming into the harbor pass through here and under the Bayonne Bridge. Then with the help of several tugboats, they must make a 90 degree turn. In 2014, the Panama Canal will become wider allowing container ships to become even bigger. These bigger ships won’t fit under the Bayonne Bridge.

I met this young skateboarder in the park.

Then I walked along Richmond Terrace to the ferry. A lot of the waterfront is blocked off.

There is a large water treatment plant.

And old coal bins just like on the Gowanus Canal and also the Coney Island Creek.

This is what is across the street from the old coal bins and Caddell Dry Dock it looked pretty uninhabited.

At Bard Avenue, there is an access point where you can get right down to the water. There was obviously a railway there once when the wharves here were more active. kind of like Sunset Park.

It is quite possible that the most toxic thing on Coney Island is poverty. A walk down Mermaid Avenue is a very different experience than one two blocks over down the boardwalk. I didn’t capture it. Here are a couple of the survivors.

This man standing on the corner in front of the white fence isn’t such a survivor. He asked me for money for a cup of coffee as I stood on the corner photographing one of the Coney Island Houses with broken windows. Calling them Coney Island Houses is of course a euphemism as these are apartment buildings.

I don’t understand the economics of Coney Island. How can there be undeveloped land right on the beach? What I don’t show here is the gate walling off Seagate a few blocks from here.
it is not because this is a flood zone.

These are the O’Dwyer Garden Houses.
This little boy was playing in the playground of the Coney Island Houses.

Here is the more familiar side of Coney Island: the beach and the amusement area.